Misplacement
by MANGOM1LK
Summary: Connie Maheswaran has always been like a sister to you.
1. First Chapter

Connie Maheswaran has always been like a sister to you.

Your mothers worked the same job, and you ended up being born only a few weeks before her. She would help you with homework, and you would help her with time management, since she could never seem to get the hang of it.

She would get much more attached to her fandoms than you would - although yes, you liked them, and made sure to keep up to date on the episodes or books, she went the full nine yards. She drew fanart, designed OCs, and even wrote fanfiction. Her two favorites were Harry Potter and something called "Steven Universe".

You never really understood her taking to the latter, and if she were honest, she didn't, either.

She'd tend to do stuff like this in your 9th period class, which you shared. Your teacher was generally understanding of it, though, since she'd get the work done beforehand and check it a few times against your own.

You'd humor her sometimes and make a game mod out of something, since she'd be interested in things like that and was always proud to see you put in the effort.

Today you're particularly excited because you'd planned together to marathon all the Harry Potter movies and analyze their differences from the books.

She isn't at the bus stop, however. _That was strange_ , you think to yourself. _She's always here before me._ You write it off as her having a bad day. It tended to happen once in a while when she ended up missing an assignment due to taking too long on the others. Her mom would let her sleep in and drive her to school later.

She wasn't at any of your shared classes, though. You'd generally have to keep your mind strictly on the assignment during fourth period, so you didn't get the chance to think about it much. Ninth period was a different story, though.

 _Maybe she's sick?_ you consider. _But then, she'd have told me about it._ As you leave the classroom, you decide to call her. You open the contacts app and find her name in the list, selecting Call.

There are seven rings. Usually she picks up before the third.

"Hello?"

You freeze. This is her cell number, but that's not someone you recognize.

Tentatively, you continue speaking. "Hi, can I speak to Connie, please?"

"...who's Connie?"

Something is wrong. You can feel it.

"Look, I think you have the wrong number."

"Yeah, I must have misdialed. Sorry."

You end the call. In a nervous panic, you find Priyanka's name in the list and call her.

"Maheswaran residence. Priyanka speaking."

You identify yourself.

"I'm a little worried about Connie. Someone else answered her phone, and she hasn't been to school. Is she ill?"

"I don't know what you are talking about. Who are you? How did you get this number?"

You hang up frantically.

By the time you are home, you don't really remember why you called Priyanka or even why you have her number.

Why would you?

You don't know any Connie.


	2. Second Chapter

you woulda thought(/o_o\\)

While you walk to the bus stop, you notice that there appears to be an empty space in between your house and the neighboring one. Now that you think of it, that has always been there. It's strange, though. You can almost see a house there.

The bus ride ends a bit abruptly, and you notice that it feels sort of empty. You wonder why this bus was assigned a full-length one.

Though your classes all have full attendance, you notice that the day was sort of quiet, and that it felt like people were missing.

You almost trip over your front steps, since one of them is very short. It's quite baffling to you that they made that design choice.

You find that muscle memory leads you straight into a wall in your house. Granted, you were looking at your phone, but you've lived in this house since you were born, and you feel like there should be something there.

You take out your homework. One of the questions asked you how long across the universe is estimated to be. You, of course, answer the current estimate, which is about 256 million lightyears.

Wait.

You look back. As you stare at it, the number in both the reading and in your answer ticks down, one by one.

255.

254.

253.

You decide to take a break. As you are splashing cold water on your face, you take deep, reassuring breaths.

You look up that "Steven Universe" thing your friend told you about. It's not half bad.

It doesn't seem quite cohesive, though.

As in, it seems to be missing characters.

There are awkward pauses in dialouge, and one episode consists only of different shots of different areas.

Who would approve that?

Probably the same people who approved Teen Titans Go, the only other show on the network.

No, that doesn't seem right.

Why, though? It's always been.

You try not to think about it as you're going to sleep that night, but you just can't help it.

If things stop existing, would anyone know?

No.


	3. Third Chapter

You wake up on the couch. It seems a bit strange, given you don't remember going to sleep there.

Then again, you don't remember much of anything right now.

You get up to shower and put clothes on, but you don't really know why. It's not like you have somewhere to be.

You walk to the bathroom, which is on the same floor. Everything is, and always has been. Your house only has one floor.

Luckily for you, the pipes still work, so you take a nice long shower. Nobody is there to stop you, so why not?

You finish, dry off, put on some clothing, and go look for some food. There's only one MRE left in the cabinet, but it's probably fine, since there has always been exactly one MRE in the cabinet.

It's spaghetti and meatballs, the only remotely good one. You pour it into a bowl, heat some water, add it in, and stir it with a plastic fork, the only utensil in your house.

You sit at your table and eat. When you finish, you leave everything on the table.

You go back to the couch and lay down, falling asleep immediately.


	4. Reunion

Darkness.

You float in cold darkness.

You've been keeping in the fetal position to maintain what little heat you have, but it's being lost rapidly due to your lack of a hat.

Really?

That's all you can think of right now?

Aren't you curious about _why_ you're alone? You're not supposed to be, you know.

It's all you can remember, though.

There... there _must_ be a reason for all this.

You see a twinkle of light. It's the only thing in this cold, dark nothing. You find you can move as if you were underwater.

...How do you remember what water is?

...Whatever. Just get there as fast as you can.

As you swim (?) toward the light, you can see that its source is square, and only just large enough to contain you.

There is a shrill humming noise coming from it that seems very familiar to you, and it gets louder as you approach.

You brace for some sort of impact, but your vision fades to white as you contact it, freezing you in place.

(/o_o\\)

You feel as if you've woken up from a dream, but that can't be right. You're standing up, and this isn't anywhere you recognize.

The floor has the same yellow glow to it, and you can't tell what it is made from. You see a figure in the distance and run over to it, noticing the parallel to your previous experience a few moments ago.

When you get close enough, you can recognize a girl lying in the fetal position. She's about the same age as you, maybe a little shorter, with dark skin and characteristic eye shape.

 _OhmygodConnie._

Your arm snaps to her wrist to check for a pulse, since she appears to be passed out. Your eyes become glassy.

Beat.

Beat.

Beat.

 _Thank god._

You shake her awake.

"Hey. C'mon. Don't do this to me now. Not after..." Sniffling, you continue. "Not after I forgot you. Oh, Connie... Sweet, nerdy, awkward, introverted Connie. How could I ever forget you?"

She turns onto her back. A small piano plays in the background, but you don't care because it works well for the mood and you're just _so damn happy she's alright._

"Ughhh..." She rubs her eyes. "What..."

She looks up at you and recognizes you. "Oh. Hi..."

You're laughing, tears of joy stream down your face, you embrace her in your arms.

" _I missed you._ "


End file.
